Storia dell'Istituto
Since the beginning of the century the communal administration had realized the necessity of founding a "high school", which might have replaced Father's Scolopi Religious School, whose didactic activity was limited to the gymnasium. This objective was reached in 1914 by the communal council headed by Guido Incontri; in that year a newly founded school was added to the Scolopi Gymnasium, and eleven students enrolled to the first class. This can be considered a fairly good number, considering the type of school and low level of education in existence in Italy. As a matter of fact it seems that none of the students were from Volterra.
However the new school had a short life; it was closed after just one year, as Italy entered first world war, without any really clear reason. It seems anyway, that the war caused, at least indirectly, the end of the school activity as it drastically reduced funds available and/or the number of students to enroll. Such a decision might have been influenced by the very modest results of the students, as for at the end of the first year only two of the eleven students were promoted, and they preferred to continue their studies at the Galileo Galilei high School in Pisa.
Despite of this, the first opening of the school produced a modest but durable result. It seems that both the old gymnasium and the new school were dedicated to Giosuè Carducci, who recently had passed away. It also seems that this name became the common name of the school, even if referrals to the "ginnasio S. Michele" can be found on the contemporary press.
The school did not exist from 1915 to 1923, when two facts determined its reopening. First, in 1922 came to life the italian school reformation by Giovanni Gentile. Then, new political elections were held in Volterra, and the new council was headed by Fabio Guidi, who personally wanted the school to be reopened.
On July 30th, 1923 the council decided unanimously to reinstate the new combined high school. Obviously, the reopened school was not the one opened and suddenly closed between 1914 and 1915, but the school managed in the 19th century by the Scolopi.
So, in the scholastic year 1923-1924 the high school was reopened, being entitled again to Giosuè Carducci and having its location in the Istituto San Michele, where the former San Michele gymnasium already was. The same year the communal council asked - without succeeding - for the gymnasium to gain the status of state public school. Ten students enrolled that first year; they were mostly from Volterra and at the end of the year they had better results than those obtained in 1914 -1915, as for half of the students were promoted to the second class. This "success" was not enough to ensure a continuity to the school which, again, in 1924-1925 was not reopened.
There are not clear explanations of this fact, being only a vague referral to some obstacles and difficulties - without any further analysis - in the documents we have, obstacles which hardly seems to be of financial or didactical nature. After such a long period a political hypothesis seems to be the most likely. The high school was mainly wanted by Fabio Guidi, whose relationships with fascist political party were not clear at the time, being at the same time member of the liberal party and more faithful to the king than to Benito Mussolini. Maybe that the " difficulties of a various nature" were only a consequence of a political dispute between the communal government and the state government.
Anyway, in 1924 the high school ceased to function and in 1925 Fabio Guidi was replaced by Antonio Carraro.
Despite his efforts in other fields, for the entire length of his mandate Carraro did not put efforts in reforming the local school system. In 1929 Fabio Guidi, senator of the reign at the time, came back to Volterra as mayor, and the local school system returned in place as a priority of the local government.
This is demonstrated by numerous initiatives which took place in those years, although not directly connected with the reopening of the gymnasium. In the period 1929 until 1934 a new school of art was founded, and still functioning today. In 1932 the gymnasium gained the status of state public school.
The opening in Volterra of a classical high school continued to be one of the main projects in Fabio Guidi's mind, and he had the communal council to decide its opening on July 14th 1934, just before the end his mandate. The new mayor Ettore Campanella, canceled his predecessor's decision because of the lack of students (only four for the scholastic year 1934-1935).
In 1935, however, Mr. Campanella ended his mandate and colonel Eugenio Lagorio took his place as Volterra's mayor. He intended to continue Mr. Guidi' project and, having seen the impossibility to open a state public high school, on September 26th, 1936 decided to open a communal high school "….as integration and continuation of the Regio Ginnasio G. Carducci, with the first class intended to be attended in 1936-1937". To make sure that no other political obstacles would have negated the possibility to have the school running, he lied on the actual number of students enrolled in the school, writing that "…..at least ten students from Volterra and the rest from the proximity communities" would have attended the school. From the papers we still have we can see that five students enrolled in the first class in 1936 , and three of them were promoted to the second class. The following year, then, seven students entered the school, but only six really attended classes. Only one of the three students attending the second class was promoted to the third class, making it impossible to open a third class. As a matter of fact the six students who entered the school in 1937 were the first who completed the study cycle, attending the so called "maturity exam" in 1940, when Italy had already entered the second world war.
Adriana Isolani
Since Etruscan times the alabaster handicraft was typical of Volterra and its surroundings. The I.S.A. Institute draws its origins from this tradition, preserving and carrying on sensibility and shapes. At the same times, it is projected toward new researches and new teaching experiences, in a process of constant renovation aimed at putting in the most recent methods concerning design. The Institute is the result of the evolution of the first school-workshop for alabaster, founded in Volterra in 1791 by the noble Marcello Inghirami-Fei who wanted to contribute with his wealth to the development of his town. On the premises of the no-more existing "St. Dalmazio Academy of Music", which belonged to the Benedectine Nuns, he opened a workshop for alabaster working, to help the local industry which was then in a precarious situation. As there were no qualified workers in Volterra, the noble Inghirami-Fei sent for famous decorators and sculptors from Rome, Naples and Sicily (Professor Cornelio and Desmarais, from France, became the headmasters of the school). In this way Inghirami's workshop employed and educated about one hundred craftsmen. The presence of such "Masters" made handcraft in Volterra less provincial and enriched it with a heritage of technology, manual ability and artistic taste, which left its traces during the years, far beyond Inghirami's experience. The workshop was a school and a laboratory at the same time; apprentices learned to read and write and they were also taught a new taste, so to became technically prepared to carry out different stages in alabaster working. Thanks to Inghirami's workshop, alabaster working acquired new features on the artistic point of view and increased its production, also in virtue of the exploitation of the deposits in Castellina Marittima from which very big blocks of alabaster of peerless beauty derived. The handmade articles (columns, lamps, candelabra, vases and cups, different-sized statues, reproductions of classical works) had soon a great success both in Italy and abroad.
In 1799 the noble Inghirami, driven by anti-French feelings, did his best to defend his town against the transalpine invaders. The French success, in 1800, obliged him to leave Italy. This put an end to his brilliant project, which, anyway, left important traces in the following years. This experience signed the beginning of the future alabaster workshops and created the masters of the subsequent "Drawing School" founded in 1818.
Once the political situation was settled, first with the Napoleonic dominion and then with the return of the Lorenas after 1815, alabaster craftsmanship began its rise, which reached the highest point from 1850 to 1870. In 1822 the Town Council reorganized a public drawing school. Its first teacher was Antonio Faltoni, who gave it a great stimulus.In 1850 the local government made a special building to hold the greater and greater number of apprentices, attendind the drawing school. After a visit to the drawing school, Pope Pio IX - who has studied in Volterra, at San Michele Boarding School - presented it with nine plaster copies of the Greek statues of the Vatican Museums, to show his estimation. In 1890 the drawing school was changed into Industrial Art School, likewise many others founded all over the Reign, to make it nearer to the needs of industry. In 1926 the School, even if changed into "Artistic-Industrial School for Alabaster", preserved its cultural role, which was fundamental in training highly qualified workers from Volterra. In 1933 it was transferred to the imposing building which is now its seat. The building, designed by architect Bruno Colivicchi, has a typical M-shaped plan (M stands for Mussolini) and it is built after the linear style which was typical of the architecture during the Fascist twenty-year period. In 1937 two new teaching departures were opened for the working of metals, light alloys and wood, because it was necessary to begin an experimentation involving also the union of alabaster and others materials in order to give a new image on the market, to the typical stone of Volterra. In the '70s a workroom, exclusively intended for alabaster working, was built in the garden behind the main buiding. The building has practically preserved its original design during the years. Only recently new facilities have been built, suitable for pulling down architectural features that deny access to the handicapped. Inside the School it is possible to admire the most important works, planned and carried out by the school-boys and girls during the years.
Paola Orsini
